First of all, most chewing gum is sweetened with sucrose. When chewing gum, sugar stays in the mouth for a long time. Cariogenic bacteria in the mouth will use sucrose to produce acidic substances, which will corrode teeth and decalcify them, thus inducing dental caries.
Secondly, people who have filled their teeth with mercury-containing materials had better not chew gum. A study by Swiss scientists found that chewing gum often destroys the substances used to fill teeth in the mouth and releases amalgam, which leads to excessive mercury content in blood and urine, thus causing harm to the brain, central nervous system and kidneys.
Besides, chewing gum is not good for children. Because the child's self-control ability is poor, if he keeps chewing gum in his mouth all day, he may be swallowed or mistakenly entered into the trachea, which is life-threatening. In addition, chewing gum for a long time, the masticatory muscles are always in a state of tension, which may develop the habit of grinding teeth during sleep, thus affecting the quality of children's sleep.
Doctors suggest that chewing gum should not last more than 15 minutes, and people with stomach problems should not chew gum too much, because chewing gum for a long time will reflexively secrete a lot of gastric acid, which will not only cause symptoms such as fasting nausea, loss of appetite, acid reflux, etc., but also lead to diseases such as gastric ulcer and gastritis after a long time.
Don't eat too much chewing gum. Some patients don't eat it.
Many gastrointestinal experts believe that chewing gum on an empty stomach can cause nausea, dizziness and other adverse reactions, which are easy to cause gastritis and gastric ulcer; Don't chew gum for more than 20 minutes after meals. Otherwise, the digestive juice secreted when chewing gum will damage the gastric mucosa.
Pediatric neurologists believe that the chewing muscles of children who like chewing gum are always in a "tense state". Children should chew gum no more than 3-4 times a day and chew for no more than 10- 15 minutes after each meal. Never put chewing gum in your mouth all day. The longer it takes, the greater the harm. This is also one of the reasons why children can't sleep well when grinding their teeth.
Stomatologists, gastrointestinal experts and pediatric experts agree that children before the age of 3 and children with gastritis, duodenitis, gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer should not chew gum. In addition, the extract contained in chewing gum may have an allergic reaction with drugs, and children with serious infectious diseases should not chew chewing gum.
Some people think that chewing gum can prevent caries, while others think that chewing gum can prevent caries. So is chewing gum beneficial or harmful to oral health? We should analyze it realistically and concretely.
(1) The benefits of chewing gum to oral health should be analyzed from its two characteristics. First of all, chewing gum needs to be chewed continuously in the mouth, which is beneficial to oral health:
① Chewing can stimulate saliva secretion, and combined with the friction effect of chewing gum on teeth, it can enhance the cleaning effect of teeth, reduce caries-causing factors and help prevent caries.
② Regular chewing exercise is beneficial to periodontal health, even to beauty. According to the survey data, some actors and singers often exercise their faces, and the occurrence of facial senile plaques is at least 8 to 10 years later than that of ordinary people. Fox, director of the Los Angeles Neurology Medical Center, found that chewing gum for 15 ~ 20 minutes every day would be helpful for beauty. If it lasts for several weeks, it will also reduce facial wrinkles and gradually become rosy. This is because chewing promotes facial muscle movement, improves blood circulation and improves the metabolic activity of skin cells. Therefore, some scientists advocate regular chewing exercise, especially in the daily diet, we should eat more coarse grains and foods rich in fiber with appropriate hardness, chew slowly, which is not only conducive to the absorption of nutrients, the cleaning of teeth, but also conducive to the promotion of facial muscle movement. Secondly, chewing gum is characterized by a "fragrant" word. Incense can improve people's interest in chewing, and can also temporarily improve the bad smell in the mouth, which makes people feel refreshed and comfortable, and is also conducive to social activities.
(2) If chewing gum is harmful to oral health, the key lies in the word "sugar", because sugar is one of the important factors of dental caries, while chewing gum, sugar stays in the mouth for a long time. What do we do? At present, the development of science and technology has found a substitute for sugar, xylitol or stevia. This can not only satisfy people's enjoyment of sweetness, but also achieve the purpose of reducing dental caries. Another problem is that many children and teenagers like to blow bubbles with chewing gum. If they continue to blow bubbles frequently, their front teeth may move outward, affecting their appearance.